Page:The Outcry (London, Methuen & Co., 1911).djvu/110

96 "A 'Mantovano'?" You wouldn't have been sure that his lordship didn't pronounce the word for the first time in his life.

"There have been supposed to be only seven real examples about the world; so that if by an extraordinary chance you find yourself the possessor of a magnificent eighth"

But Lord John had already broken in. "Why, there you are, Mr. Bender!"

"Oh, Mr. Bender, with whom I've made acquaintance," Hugh returned, "was there as it began to work in me"

"That your Moretto, Lord Theign"—Mr. Bender took their informant up—"isn't, after all, a Moretto at all." And he continued amusedly to Hugh: "It began to work in you, sir, like very strong drink!"

"Do I understand you to suggest," Lord Theign asked of the startling young man, "that my precious picture isn't genuine?"

Well, Hugh knew exactly what he suggested. "As a picture, Lord Theign, as a great portrait, one of the most genuine things in Europe. But it strikes me as probable that from far back—for reasons!—there has been a wrong attribution; that the work has been, in other